Bayara. Tuyur about the middle of July. After a month's stay he sailed for Malta and Sicily, reaching the foot of Mount Etna in time to witness the first outbreak of the eruption of 1852. Thence he passed to Italy, the Tyrol, Germany, and England. In October he took a new departure from England for Gibraltar, spent a month in the south of Spain, and proceeded by the overland route to Bombay. He set out on the 4th of January, 1853, and after a tour of twenty-two hundred miles in the interior of India, reached Calcutta on the 22d of February. He there embarked for Hong Kong, by way of Penang and Singapore. Soon after his arrival in China he was attached to the American legation, and accompanied the minister, Colonel Marshall, to Shanghai, where he remained two months. On the arrival of Commodore Perry's squadron he entered the naval service for the purpose of accompanying it to Japan. He left on the 17th of May, and after visiting and exploring the Loo Choo and Bonin Islands, arrived in the bay of Yedo on the 8th of July. The expedition to which he was attached, remained there nine days, engaged with the ceremonials of delivering the President's letter, and then returned to Loo Choo and China. Taylor then spent a month in Macao and Canton, and sailed for New York on the 9th of September. After a voyage of one hundred and one days, during which the vessel touched at Angier in Java, and St. Helena, he reached New York on the 20th of December, 1853, after an absence of two years and four months, having accomplished upwards of fifty thousand miles of travel. His letters, describing the journey, were all this while published in the Tribune. In their enlarged and improved form they furnish material for several series of volumes. The characteristics of Mr. Taylor's writings are, in his poems, ease of expression, with a careful selection of poetic capabilities, a full, animated style, with a growing attention to art and condensation. His prose is equable and clear, in the flowing style; the narrative of a genial, healthy observer of the many manners of the world which he has seen in the most remarkable portions of its four quarters. In person he is above the ordinary height, manly and robust, with a quick, resolute way of carrying out his plans with courage and independence; and with great energy and perseverance, he combines a happy natural temperament and benevolence. BEDOUIN SONG. From the Desert I come to thee In the speed of my desire. And the midnight hears my cry: I love thee, I love but thee, With a love that shall not die And the stars are old, And the leaves of the Judgment Look from thy window and see And I faint in thy disdain. Let the night-winds touch thy brow And the stars are old, And the leaves of the Judgment My steps are nightly driven, By the fever in my breast, And open thy chamber door, Till the sun grows cold, And the stars are old, And the leaves of the Judgment KILIMANDJARO. Hail to thee, monarch of African mountains, The years of the world are engraved on thy forehead; And thou art revealed to my purified vision. Zone above zone, to thy shoulders of granite, And, giving each shelvy recess where they dally There stretches the Oak, from the loftiest ledges, Bathed in the tenderest purple of distance, Thy battlements hang o'er the slopes and the forests, Above them, like folds of imperial ermine, Chasms and caverns where Day is a stranger, Sovereign Mountain, thy brothers give welcome: Belted with beech and ensandalled with palm; Lo. unto each is the seal of his lordship, RICHARD HENRY STODDARD In Was born at Hingham, Massachusetts. He has latterly resided in New York, where, having previously been a contributor to the Knickerbocker and other magazines, he published in 1849 a first collection of poems, entitled Foot Prints. 1852 a collection of the author's maturer Poems appeared from the press of Ticknor and Co. The verses of Mr. Stoddard are composed with skill in a poetic school of which Keats may be placed at the head. He has a fondness for poetic luxuries, and his reader frequently participates in his enjoyment. He has achieved some success in the difficult province of the Ode, and has an equally rare accomplishment-touched several delicate themes in song with graceful simplicity. R. H. Stoddard. AUTUMN. Divinest Autumn! who may sketch thee best, Crunching among the leaves the ripened mast; Sometimes at work where ancient granary-floors Are open wide, a thresher stout and hale, Whitened with chaff upwafted from thy flail, While south winds sweep along the dusty floors; And sometimes fast asleep at noontide hours, Pillowed on sheaves, and shaded from the heat, His burning forehead at the gate of Heaven;- A wisp of straw entwisted in a crown; Across each arm, tugged downward by the load, Their glossy leaves blown off by wandering airs; A yellow-rinded lemon in thy right, In thy left hand a sickle caught the light, Keen as the moon which glowed Along the fields of night: One moment seen, the shadowy masque was flown, And I was left, as now, to meditate alone. Hark! hark!-I hear the reapers in a row, Shouting their harvest carols blithe and loud, Cutting the rustled maize whose crests are bowed With ears o'ertasselled, soon to be laid low; Crooked earthward now, the orchards droop their boughs With red-cheek fruits, while far along the wall, Full in the south, ripe plums and peaches fall In tufted grass where laughing lads carouse; And down the pastures, where the horse goes round His ring of tan, beneath the mossy shed, Old cider-presses work with creaky din, Sweet-scented winds from meadows newly mown Half-smothered, as they tread it from the top; And by and by, when northern winds are out, And nuts and apples will be passed about, Sovereign of Seasons! Monarch of the Earth! With plenteous harvesting, and heaped increase, We lift our eyes to thee through grateful tears. World-wide in boons, vouchsafe to visit first, And linger last long o'er our realm of Peace, Where freedom calmly sits, and beckons on the Years! THE TWO BRIDES. I saw two maidens at the kirk, And one in her winding sheet. And one for life to Life, And one to Death was wed. They were borne to their bridal beds, In loveliness and bloom; One in a merry castle, The other a solemn tomb. One on the morrow woke In a world of sin and pain; But the other was happier far, And never woke again! WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER Is the son of the eminent lawyer and politician Benjamin F. Butler, a member of the cabinet of Jackson and Van Buren, to whom, in 1824, in connexion with John Duer and the late John C. Spencer, was intrusted the important work of revising the statutes of the state of New York, and author of several addresses and a few poetical contributions to the Democratic Review, and other periodicals. William Allen Butler was born in Albany in 1825. After completing his course at the University of the City of New York, and his law studies in the office of his father, he passed a year and a half abroad. Since his return he has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession. Mr. Butler is the author of a number of poeins, and is also a spirited prose writer. He has contributed to the Democratic Review several translations from Uhland; to the Art-Union Bulletin, The Cities of Art and the Early Artists, a series of biographical and critical sketches of the Old Masters; and to the Literary World a few pleasant sketches of travel, with the title Out-of-the-Way Places in Europe, and several humorous papers in prose and verse, entitled The Colonel's Club. In 1850 he was the author of Barnum's Parnassus: being Confidential Disclosures of the Prize Committee on the Jenny Lind Song, with Specimens of leading American Poets in the happiest effulgence of their genius; a poetical squib, which passed rapidly through several editions. UHLAND. It is the Poet Uhland from whose wreathings Of clear unfaltering tune, serene and strong; Where gentlest thoughts and words in soft proces sion, Move to the even measures of his song. Delighting ever in his own calm fancies, He sees much beauty where most men see naught, Looking at Nature with familiar glances, And weaving garlands in the groves of Thought. He sings of Fatherland, the minstrel's glory, ' Nourished in long belief or Minstrel rhymes, And plains and valleys of his native Land; His simple lays oft sings the mother cheerful The hill-side swain, the reaper in the meadows, Oh precious gift! oh wondrous inspiration! Catches the echo from the sounding strings. By continent, nor sea, nor narrow zone; JOHN L. McCONNEL. MR. MCCONNEL was born in Illinois, November 11, 1826. After studying law with his father, Murray McConnel, a distinguished lawyer and politician of the West, he entered and was graduated at the Transylvania Law School, Lexington, Ky. On the sixth of June, 1816, he entered the regiment of Col. Harding, as a volunteer in the ranks. Before leaving the rendezvous at Alton, he was made first lieutenant of his company, and promoted to a captaincy at the battle of Buena Vista, where he was twice wounded. After serving out his term he returned home, and commenced the practice of the law at Jacksonville, Illinois, where he has since re-ided. In the spring of 1850 Mr. McConnel published Talbot and Vernon; in the autumn of the same year Graham, or Youth and Manhood; and in 1851 The Glenns. The scene of these novels is laid in the West; and the author has drawn on his experiences of the Mexican War and his skill as a lawyer in the construction of his plots. . These were followed in 1853 by Western Characters, a collection of sketches of the prominent classes in the formative period of western society. It is one of the author's most successful volumes. Mr. McConnel is at present engaged upon a continuation of this work, and also upon a History of Early Explorations in America, having especial reference to the labors of the early Roman Catholic missionaries. A WESTERN POLITICIAN OF THE FIRST GROWTH. A description of his personal appearance, like that of any other man, will convey no indistinct impression of his internal character. Such a description probably combined more characteristic adjectives than that of any other personage of his time-adjectives, some of which were applicable to many of his neighbors, respectively, but all of which might be bestowed upon him only. He was tall, gaunt, angular, swarthy, active, and athletic. His hair was, invariably, black as the wing of the raven, even in that small portion which the cap of racoon-skin left exposed to the action of sun and rain, the gray was but thinly scattered; imparting to the monotonous darkness only a more iron character. As late as the present day, though we have changed in many things, light-haired men seldom attain eminence among the western people: many of our legislators are young enough, but none of them are beardless. They have a bilious look, as if, in case of illness, their only hope would lie in calomel and jalap. One might understand, at the first glance, that they are men of talent, not of genius; and that physical energy, the enduring vi tality of the body, has no inconsiderable share in the power of the mind. Corresponding to the sable of the hair, the politician's eye was usually small, and intensely black -not the dead, inexpressive jet, which gives the idea of a hole through white paper, or of a cavernous socket in a death's head; but the keen, midnight darkness, in whose depths you can see a twinkle of starlight-where you feel that there is meaning as well as color. There might be an expression of cunning along with that of penetration -but, in a much higher degree, the blaze of irascibility. There could be no doubt, from its glance, that its possessor was an excellent hater; you might be assured that he would never forget an injury or betray a friend. A stoop in the shoulders indicated that, in times past, he had been in the habit of carrying a heavy rifle, and of closely examining the ground over which he walked; but what the chest thus lost in depth it gained in breadth. His lungs had ample space in which to play-there was nothing pulmonary even in the drooping shoulders. Few of his class have ever lived to a very advanced age, but it was not for want of iron constitutions, that they went early to the grave. The same services to his country, which gave the politician his prominence, also shortened his life. From shoulders thus bowed, hung long, muscular arms-sometimes, perhaps, dangling a little ungracefully, but always under the command of their owner, and ready for any effort, however violent. These were terminated by broad, bony hands, which looked like grapnels-their grasp, indeed, bore no faint resemblance to the hold of those symmetrical instruments. Large feet, whose toes were usually turned in, like those of the Indian, were wielded by limbs whose vigor and activity were in keeping with the figure they supported. Imagine, with these peculiarities, a free, bold, rather swaggering gait, a swarthy complexion, and conformable features and tones of voice: and-excepting his costume-you have before your fancy a complete picture of the early western politician. ICHABOD CRANE BEYOND THE ALLEGHANIES. A genuine specimen of the class to which most of the early schoolmasters belonged, never felt any misgivings about his own success, and never hesitated to assume any position in life. Neither pride nor modesty was ever suffered to interfere with his action. He would take charge of a numerous school, when he could do little more than write his own name, just as he would have undertaken to run a steamboat, or command an army, when he had never studied engineering or heard of strategy. Nor would he have failed in either capacity: a week's application would make him master of a steam-engine, or a proficient (after the present manner of proficiency) in tacties; and as for his school, he could himself learn at night what he was to teach others on the following day! Nor was this "conceit"-though, in some other respects, that word, in its limited sense, was not, inapplicable -neither was it altogether ignorant presumption; for one of these men was seldom known to fail in anything he undertook: or, if he did fail, he was never found to be cast down by defeat, and the resiliency of his nature justified his confidence. mere characters. The tailor that could shape a coat to fit his shoulders, never yet handled shears; and he would have been as ill at ease in a pair of fashionable pantaloons, as if they had been lined with chestnut-burrs. He was generally above the medium height, with a very decided stoop, as if in the habit of carrying burthens: and a long, high nose, with light blue eyes, and coarse, uneven hair, of a faded weather-stain color, gave his face the expres sion answering to this lathy outline. Though never very slender, he was always thin: as if he had been flattened out in a rolling-mill; and rotundity of corporation was a mode of development not at all characteristic. His complexion was seldom florid, and not often decidedly pale; a sort of saliow discoloration was its prevailing hue, like that which marks the countenance of a consumer of "coarse" whiskey and strong tobacco. But these failings were not the cause of his cadaverous look-for a faithful representative of the class held them both in commendable abhorrence-they were not the vices of his nature. There was a subdivision of the class, a secondary type, not so often observed, but common enough to entitle it to a brief notice. He was, generally, short, squat, and thick-the latitude bearing a better proportion to the longitude than in his lank brother-but never approaching anything like roundness. With this attractive figure he had a complexion of decidedly bilious darkness, and what is commonly called a "dish-face." His nose was depressed between the eyes, an arrangement which dragged the point upward in the most cruel manner, but gave it an expression equally ludicrous and impertinent. A pair of small, round, black eyes, encompassed-like two little feudal fortresses, each by its moat with a circle of yellowish white, peered out from under brows like battlements. Coarse, black hair, always cut short, and standing erect, so as to present something the appearance of a chevaux de frise, protected a hard, round head--a shape most appropriate to his lineage-while, with equal propriety, ears of corresponding magnitude stood boldly forth to assert their claim to notice. Both these types were distinguished for large feet, which no boot could enclose, and hands broad beyond the compass of any glove. Neither was ever known to get drunk, to grow fat, to engage in a game of chance, or to lose his appetite: it became the teacher of " ingenuous youth" to preserve an exemplary bearing before those whom he was endeavoring to benefit; while respectable "appearances," and proper appreciation of the good things of life, were the alpha and omega of his system of morality. J. M. LEGARÉ, A POET of South Carolina, and a resident, we believe, of Charleston, and a relative of the late Hugh S. Legaré, is the author of a volume, Orta- Undis and Other Poems, published in 1848. They are marked by their delicacy of sentiment and a certain scholastic refinement. AMY. This is the pathway where she walked, The sunshine gladly stole between A brook ran murmuring beneath And there her robe of spotless white, The coy sweetbriers half detained The path still winds, the brook descends, In all that forest sear. AUGUSTUS JULIAN REQUIER Was born at Charleston, South Carolina, May 27, 1825. He was educated in that city, and having selected the law as his profession, was called to the bar in 1844. From a very early age Mr. Requier was a regular contributor to the newspapers and periodicals, and in his seventeenth year published The Spanish Exile, a play in blank verse, which was acted with success. A year or two after he published The Old Sanctuary, a romance, the scene of which is laid in Carolina before the Revolution. He soon after removed to Marion, South Carolina, where, during the leisure intervals which occur in the life of a country barrister, many of his more mature and elaborate pieces in prose and verse were composed. These have never been collected in book form. The most prominent of them are "The Phantasmagoria," "Marco Bozzaris," a tragedy; "The Dial Plate," "Treasure_Trove," "To Mary on Earth," "The Thornless Rose," ""The Charm," "The Image," "The Blackbeard," "The three Misses Grimball," a sketch; the Farewell Address to the Palmetto Regiment, delivered at the Charleston Theatre by Mrs. Mowatt, and mentioned in her "Autobiography;" the "Welcome" to the same regiment on its return from Mexico, and an "Ode to Shakespeare." Mr. Requier subsequently removed to Mobile, Alabama, where he now resides. Since 1850 he has ceased to write, being altogether engrossed by his professional pursuits, to which he is entirely devoted, and in which he has attained distinction. He is at present Attorney of the United States for the southern district of Alabama, having been appointed to that office by Mr. Pierce in 1853. ODE TO SHAKESPEARE He went forth into Nature and he sung, Her first-born of imperial sway-the lord |